Theme model 9
Making a Motive Analysis of The Great Stone Face Theme-model IX.—THE STORY CONTAIN¬ING DESCRIPTION. Hawthorne's The Sister Years is the model for this new theme. The selection should be read first for a general acquaintance with the story, then reread and the following motives found in it: The situation, description of personal appear¬ance, retrospective and forward-moving narrative. Theme-model IX. in Outline. In order to show the student how one may make minor changes in the plan of a piece of literature which he is using as a pattern and yet follow its general scheme, the outline of Theme-model IX. given below is made to • differ slightly from the model itself, The Sister Years. The two should be compared and the variations noted. The outline contains : 1. A situation according to Situation-type I. 2. Description, according to Description-motive II. , of the appearance of character A of the situation. 3. Description of the appearance of character B of the situation. Use Description-motive II. 4. Retrospective narrative in the form of dia¬logue between the two characters, broken by author's comment, description, or narration. 5. Forward-moving narrative. A New Type of Narration Required Theme-model IX. An additional narrative type called for by division 4 of the outline. lt is narrative (either retrospective or forward-moving) in dialogue broken by author's narration, comment, or description. We shall study two models for this type of narrative, one dealing with the paragraphing, the other with the thought of the passages which interrupt the dialogue. 1. The paragraphing of this kind of narrative. The portions given directly by the author in the follow¬ing are printed in italics and interrupt the dialogue : As Ernest listened to the poet, he imagined that the Great Stone Face was bending forward to listen too. He gazed earnestly, into the poet's glowing eyes. "Who are you, my strangely gifted guest ?" he said. The poet laid his finger on the volume that Ernest had been reading. "You have read these poems," said he "You know me, then, — for I wrote them." Again, and still more earnestly than before, Ernest examined the poet's features, then turned towards the Great Stone Face, then back, with an uncertain aspect, to his guest. But his countenance fell; he shook his head, and sighed. '"Wherefore are you sad ? " inquired the poet. "Because," replied Ernest, "all through life I have awaited the fulfillment of a prophecy, and, when I read these poems, I hoped that it might be fulfilled in you." "You hoped," answered the poet, faintly smiling, "to find in me the likeness of the Great Stone Face. And you are disappointed, as formerly with Mr. Gathergold, and Old Blood-and-Thunder, and Old Stony Phiz." • —NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The Snow Image, and other Twice-Told Tales. SUGGESTIONS.- How are the portions which interrupt the dia¬logue paragraphed? Prove that the interrupting portions are given by the author and not by the characters of the story. 2. The thought side of this kind of narrative. The interrupting passages contain the following : Narrative—the giving of incidents or actions ad¬vancing the story. Description —of place, personal appearance, char acter, mood, mode of life. Author's comment. Observe the author's narrative and description in the following quotation : Author's Narrative: Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon sat in the oaken elbow chair, with her hands ever her face, giving way to that heavy down-sinking of the heart which most persons have experienced, when the image of hope itself seems ponderously moulded of lead, on the eve of an enterprise at once doubtful and momentous. She was suddenly startled by the tinkling alarum —high, sharp, and irregular—of a little bell. The maiden lady arose upon her feet, as pale as a ghost at cock-crow ; for she was an enslaved spirit, and this the talisman to which she owed obe¬dience. This little bell,— to speak in plainer terms,— being fastened over the shop door, was so contrived as to vibrate by means of a steel spring, and thus convey notice to the inner regions of the house when any customer should cross the threshold. Its ugly and spiteful little din (heard now for the first time, perhaps, since Hepzibah's periwigged predecessor had retired from trade) at once set every nerve of her body in responsive and tumultuous vibration. The crisis was upon her ! Her first customer was at the door! "Heaven help me!" she groaned mentally "Now is my hour of need!" Author's Description: The door, which moved with difficulty on its creaking and rusty hinges, being forced quite open, a square and sturdy little urchin became apparent, with cheeks as red as an apple. He was clad rather shabbily (but, as it seemed, more owing to his mother's carelessness than his father's poverty) in a blue apron, very wide and short trou¬sers, shoes somewhat out at the toes, and a chip hat, with the frizzles of his curly hair sticking through its crevices. A book and a small slate, under his arm, indicated that he was on his way to school. He stared at Hepzibah a moment, as an elder customer than himself would have been likely enough to do, not knowing what to make of the tragic attitude and queer scowl wherewith she regarded him. Dialogue: "Well, child," said she, taking heart at the sight of a personage so little formidable,—" well, my child, what did you wish for?" "That Jim Crow there in the window," answered the urchin, holding out a cent, and pointing to the gingerbread figure that had attracted his notice, as he loitered along to school ; "the one that has not a broken foot." Author's Narrative: So Hepzibah put forth her lank arm, and, taking the effigy from the shop window, delivered it to her first customer. Dialogue: "No matter for the money," said she, giving him a little push toward the door ; for her old gen¬tility was, contumaciously squeamish at sight of the copper coin, and, besides, it seemed such pitiful meanness • to take the child's pocket money ip exchange for a bit of stale gingerbread. "No mat¬ter for the cent. You are welcome to Jim Crow." Author's Narrative : The child, staring with round eyes at this instance of liberality, wholly unprece¬dented in his large experience of cent-shops, took the man of gingerbread and quitted the premises. No sooner had he reached the sidewalk (little cannibal that he was) than Jim Crow's head was in his mouth. - NATHANIEL HAWTI1ORNE, The House of the Seven Gables. Exercise Notice the paragraphing of the above selection. With what motive does the description deal ? Are the narrative portions retrospective, forward-mov¬ing, or anticipatory? Is the situation given ? Theme-model IX. in Reproduction. You are now ready to reproduce The Sister Years according to Theme-model IX. In the following exercise the paragraphs which contain material for the different motives are indicated. Exercises I. Write and give • orally a reproduction of The Sister Years according to the following plan : Situation —Find material in paragraphs 1 and 2. Let the New Year be B of the model. Description of the personal appearance of the New Year'(B)— Find material in paragraph 2. Description of the personal appearance of the Old Year (A) — Find material in paragraphs iand 3. Condense the material in paragraphs 4-12 and tell as author's narrative : i. e., in narrative given directly by the author. Write paragraph 15 in dialogue. Write paragraph 16 as author's narrative. Write paragraph 25 in dialogue. Write paragraphs 26 and 27 as author's narrative. Write paragraph 28 as dialogue or monologue. Because the New Year is personified we may use the term "personal appearance" with reference to it. We shall employ this term somewhat loosely in later exercises in speaking of the physical appearance of animals or inanimate objects. II. Reproduce The Pied Piper of Hamelin accord¬ing to Theme-model IX. Place the situation at the point in the story where the Mayor, let us suppose, refuses to give the Piper his money. Describe the appearance of the Mayor and of the Piper. Tell in retrospective narrative what has happened in the story up to the time of the situation. Give the re¬mainder of the story in forward-moving narrative, broken by author's description or comment. Theme-model IX. in Subjects from Life and History. Theme-model IX. is best adapted to the telling of stories in which there is a sudden change of regime. It is not so general a form as Theme-model V., by which, as we have seen, any imaginative story whatsoever may be told. It is, therefore, not so well suited to reproduction as to the writing of original stories from life and his¬tory, in which we are free to invent our characters, situations, and incidents. When our material is pre¬scribed, as it is in reproduction, we need a more elastic theme-model than the one we are now con¬sidering. However, this model is effective in repro¬ducing stories whose main interest for us is in a change of administration which involves the fall of one man and the rise of another. If the retrospective narrative is made to deal with the history of both characters previous to the time of the situation, and the forward-moving narra¬tive with the story of their lives, or some incidents in their lives, after the time of the situation, this theme may be used for other narratives than those which deal merely with a change of regime. This plan is followed in Stevenson's A Lodging for the Night. Exercise Write a story upon any of the following subjects, using Theme-model IX.: i. The history of an old and a new lighthouse keeper as related to a particular lighthouse. Represent the old man as discharged by the Government and feel¬ing resentful towards his successor: who tries to soothe his injured feelings. 2. The career of an old and a new clerk in a commercial house. Represent the old man as about to retire on a pension. 3. The story of two successive presidential adminis¬trations. 4. An old clergyman about to resign his charge to a younger man. 5. The story of the fall of Wolsey and the career of his successor, Cromwell. (See Shakspere's King Henry VIII.) 6. A country doctor about to give up his practice to a young physician. Use as the situation an interview between the two. Give in retrospective narrative the story of the old doctor and in forward-moving narrative that of the new. DIRECTIONS REGARDING THEME-MODEL IX. 1. In writing upon any of the subjects suggested in the above exercise, follow Situation-type I. 2. Use as a fundamental device in one of the descrip¬tive paragraphs, the effect of light; in the other, obverse description. Assign contrasting fundamental qualities to the persons described. 3. Employ also in these descriptions of persons as many of the minor devices pointed out in Chapters VII. and VIII. as you can without making your composition forced and unnatural. 4. Interrupt the forward-moving and retrospective narrative in dialogue, by author's description of place, mood, or mode of life, as the story may determine; also by author's narrative and comment. 5. Place the situation always at the point where the older incumbent of the position meets his successor, as in ‘.‘ The Sister Years." 6. The fundamental qualities used in the two descrip¬tive paragraphs of Theme-model IX. should prepare us for the passing or fall of one of the characters and the rise of the other. By inserting in Theme-model VI. the history of the person described, we have another kind of theme combining narration and description. Theme-model VII. may be elaborated in the same way by adding a narrative paragraph dealing with the history of the place or the life of some person connected with it.